Lost in the inaugural hullabaloo was Tuesday’s news that President Obama has relieved Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, the colorful and highly decorated Marine who’s been in charge of the crucial US Central Command, which oversees the various wars in the Middle East, since 2010. (excerpt)

Republicans in swing states that went for President Obama are pushing for a big change in how the Electoral College works, reports the Washington Post. The idea is to apportion electoral votes according to congressional district, instead of the winner-take-all system that most states employ. In Virginia, for example, the difference would be dramatic—Obama would have taken only four of the state's 13 electoral votes in 2012.

‘You Came Real Close to Losing Your Life’ A wheelchair-bound war veteran in Bogart, Ga. was targeted as a robbery victim. Given the fact that he is handicapped, the home burglar may have thought it would be the easiest job of his life. Wrong. Army veteran Mark Sikes told WAGA-TV he heard someone breaking down his front door. That’s when he pulled his 9mm handgun out of his drawer. “Next thing I know there’s a man standing in the hallway of my house, looking in my bedroom,” he said. “I reached and got the gun out of my drawer and...

Thousands of demonstrators rallied Saturday in Washington to demand tougher gun control laws, many describing themselves as first-time capital marchers who've had enough of gun violence. On a cold day, a vanguard led a blocks-long procession with a big blue banner, declaring "March on Washington for Gun Control: When we stand together, we stand a chance." The demonstrators want reinstatement of the federal ban on the sale of military-style semi-automatic rifles such as the one used in the recent Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, plus the gunman and his mother. The protestors also...

My Prediction For 2013…And Beyond By Chris Mayer 01/25/13 An old bit of advice says, “Never eat at a place called Mom’s or play poker with a man named Doc.” That’s a joke, but this isn’t: Never fall for an argument that says we’ll run out of some natural resource or bet on the “end” of cheap anything. Such views will cost you money in the long run. Let’s look at potash, a rock mined and processed to make fertilizers. This is a commodity that got exciting in 2008 and 2009 as the price ran from under $200 to $1,000...

WASHINGTON — When Mark Takano ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice in the early 1990s, his opponents tried to smear him as a “homosexual liberal” and a “nutzoid.” One of them even had pink fliers printed that asked, “A Congressman for Riverside ... Or San Francisco?” When he ran again last year, he won by almost 20 points. “Flash forward 18 years,” Mr. Takano said recently, “and the very macho building tradesmen are behind me. I’m getting pictures with them in their hard hats.” For decades, the words “gay” and “Congress” were usually seen together only in stories of scandal and...

<p>"One only wishes Wayne LaPierre and his NRA board of directors could be drafted to some of these [violent] scenes, where they would be required to put on booties and rubber gloves and help clean up the blood, the brains, and the chunks of intestine still containing the poor wads of half-digested food that were some innocent bystander’s last meal."</p>

Last week was a bleak one at Thomson Reuters, the financial news and wire service giant. According to sources, as many as 3,000 people were let go, out of approximately 50,000 employees around the globe. Most of the layoffs came from the financial sector—the sales, training and analysts’ divisions—but some were on the editorial side. “Yes, I can confirm there have been layoffs across Thomson Reuters today, including editorial,” Barb Burg, vice president and global head of communications at Reuters, told Talking Biz News last week. “Similar to efforts across the company, the Reuters organization is focusing attention on our...

Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death. For the saying implies but does not name the effective agency of its supposed utopia. The agency is called “The State,” and the motto, fleshed out, for the benefit of the easily confused must read “The State will take from each according to his ability: the State will give to each according to his needs.” “Needs and...

(CNSNews.com) - Gen. Martin Dempsey, President Obama’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that the U.S. military could figure out ways to preserve the privacy of young ladies serving in frontline combat units, including special forces combat units such as the Navy Seals and the U.S. Army’s Delta Force.

<p>The actual title is "Are Republicans the 'Stupid Party'?" but was too inflammatory to leave it without the clarification.</p>
<p>Bobby Jindal is warning that the Republicans must stop being the "stupid party".</p>
<p>The Louisiana governor, a likely contender for his party's presidential nomination in 2016, said a number of Republicans had "damaged the brand" by making "offensive and bizarre" comments.</p>

Video of a Webb County Sheriff has surfaced as he points his gun at Mexican nationals. It's stirred up controversy on the international level. The Sheriff's Department is now responding to video that surfaced of one of their deputies pointing a gun at undocumented immigrants. The Sheriff's Department says they received information that a wanted fugitive from Mexico who escaped from a Nuevo Laredo prison was now living in the United States, but a video that surfaced today shows a Webb County deputy forcing individuals trying to cross into the U.S. back into Mexico by pointing a gun. "I think...

Summary: Late evening Friday, January 25, U.S. Sentencing Commission website was hacked and government files distributed by Anonymous in what the group calls "Operation Last Resort."Hacktivist group Anonymous took control of the U.S. Sentencing Commission website Friday, January 25 in a new campaign called "Operation Last Resort."The first attack on the website was early Friday morning. The second - successful - attack came around 9pm PST that evening. By 3am PST ussc.gov was down (it has since been dropped from the DNS), yet as of this writing the IP address (66.153.19.162) still returns the defaced site's contents.It appears that via the U.S. government...

Our government is guided by the U.S. Constitution, the vital document created over 200 years ago that includes founding ideals which protect civil liberties of Americans. With the help of appointed and elected government officials, the United States runs on a set of unchangeable principles and carefully added amendments. Recently, the debt ceiling debate called into question the Constitution and how the president’s power is demarcated in the original text. The issue lies in whether or not President Obama should bypass Congress and make the executive decision to raise the spending limit. It is not unprecedented to violate the Constitution...

First, on a personal note: Thank you, thank you and thank you, Mary Elizabeth Williams! What a glorious service you’ve done the pro-life cause. I know, that’s not what you intended. But that’s precisely what you’ve accomplished. Did I say thank you? In her jaw-dropping article, “So what if abortion ends life?” Williams – a mainstream, though uncharacteristically honest pro-abort scribe for Salon.com – has inexplicably broken from the Orwellian left’s ministerial script. In so doing, she’s severally undermined the very cause for which she would gladly “sacrifice” (dismember alive that is) her very own daughter. A daughter, mind you,...

The makeover is already underway. The armed services are “now developing gender-neutral standards for all of their jobs,” reports the New York Times, replacing the less demanding physical standards for women that each branch has been using heretofore (oh, you mean you didn’t know about those lowered standards?) with a single standard for men and women. The Pentagon “has vowed” that the new gender-neutral standard will not be crafted in order to make it easier for women to join combat units. If you believe that, you probably also believe that colleges hire professors on a race- and gender-blind basis. Here’s...

A muslim who raped a 13-year-old girl he groomed on Facebook has been spared a prison sentence after a judge heard he went to an Islamic faith school where he was taught that women are worthless. Adil Rashid, 18, claimed he was not aware that it was illegal for him to have sex with the girl because his education left him ignorant of British law. Yesterday Judge Michael Stokes handed Rashid a suspended sentence, saying: ‘Although chronologically 18, it is quite clear from the reports that you are very naive and immature when it comes to sexual matters.’

Leveson: EU wants power to sack journalists A European Union report has urged tight press regulation and demanded that Brussels officials are given control of national media supervisors with new powers to enforce fines or the sacking of journalists. The â€śhigh levelâ€ť recommendations that will be used to draft future EU legislation also attack David Cameron for failing to automatically implement proposals by the Lord Justice Leveson inquiry for a state regulation of British press. A "high level" EU panel, that includes Latviaâ€™s former president and a former German justice minister, was ordered by Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice-president, last...

<p>CUMMING (AP) - Iowa Senator Tom Harkin said he will not seek re-election in 2014.</p>
<p>The 73-year-old told The Associated Press in an interview, "It's just time to step aside."</p>
<p>By the time Harkin would finish a sixth term, he would be 81 years old.</p>

French Warship for Russia 'Won't Work in Cold' - Minister MOSCOW, January 26 (RIA Novosti) - Two amphibious assault ships bought for the Russian Navy from France in a 1.2 billion euro deal will not be able to operate in temperatures below seven degrees centigrade, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin admitted on Saturday, in critical comments about the contract. "It's very odd that ships for offloading a landing force, floating in our latitudes won't work in temperatures below seven degrees," said Rogozin, who has special responsibilities for the defense industry, in a meeting of the Academy of Military Science...

They must have frostbite on their trigger fingers. The deep freeze that has New Yorkers shivering in their boots has been a crime-fighting blessing for the NYPD — and as of midnight had given the city a nine-day streak without a murder, law-enforcement sources told The Post. “Jack Frost is the policeman’s best friend,” said a source. “The criminals are staying indoors.” The Big Apple’s last murder occurred Jan. 16 in The Bronx, where Jennifer Rivera, 20, and her uncle, Jason Rivera, 30, were gunned down execution-style while sitting a parked car, police said. Rivera had a criminal drug history,...

The United States has had gun control from its founding. And the results have been dreadful. Constitutional attorney Edwin Viera Jr.points out that: Georgia's Slavery Act of 1765, for example, explained itself on the rather blatant theory of legalistic oppression that "Slavery has been introduced and allowed in His Majesty's Colonies in America and * * * Power over such Slaves ought to be settled and limited by positive Laws, so that the Slaves may be kept in due Subjection and Obedience * * * [.][5]" [SNIP] Georgia was hardly alone in this, and the pre-colonial powers were fully aware...

There are two words to describe the recent Salon column by liberal writer Mary Williams: horrendous... and honest. One of the main reasons I have been telling people in speeches, in writing, and on my radio program that I truly believe we are living in the midst of the generation that will end abortion in America is embodied in Williams' piece. The anti-life left can no longer hide behind some murky confusion of what's happening in the womb. They can no longer candy-coat what they condone. They can no longer pretend there is some great mystery to when human life...

After Democrats in New York rammed a sweeping assault on the right to keep and bear arms through the legislature that failed to exempt police officers from the draconian restrictions, gun owners and even some lawmakers are planning what has been dubbed potentially the largest act of civil disobedience in state history. According to news reports, gun rights activists are urging everyone to defy far-left Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new registration mandate while daring authorities to “come and take it.” Analysts say the legislation, passed in a frenzy last week in the wake of the Newtown shooting, represents the most brazen...

School districts that do not provide deaf students "a visual cue" alongside a starter pistol to enable them to compete on the track team or create basketball and tennis leagues for students in wheelchairs will be in violation of federal law and could lose government funding. On Friday, the Obama administration declared disabled students "have the right" to "an equal opportunity to participate in their schools' extracurricular activities." In essence, the Obama administration established the right for disabled students to play wheelchair basketball or wheelchair tennis. The U.S. Department of Education sent a guidance letter to schools, school districts, and...

Retired Brooklyn College professor Anthony Cucchiara There are more than just dead bodies buried in Green-Wood cemetery. A construction worker last week discovered a time capsule filled with historic books hidden inside a wall of the landmark cemetery’s crematorium. The weathered metal box entitled “Green-Wood 1838-1954” was likely squirreled away in the wall in 1954 and included six books detailing the history of the 478-acre cemetery. “It's exciting to know that people in 1954 wanted to leave something in terms of the cemetery legacy for us to find,” said cemetery historian Jeff Richman. Retired Brooklyn College Professor Anthony Cucchiara,...

Rep. Paul Ryan says Republicans need to stay united and pick their fights during President Barack Obama’s second term. … Ryan defends his vote on the “fiscal cliff” deal. He says that if the measure hadn't passed, every single taxpayer would have paid higher taxes. …

U.S. stocks have reached new highs, but most Americans probably don't feel any wealthier. That's because the prices of our homes have a bigger influence over how rich we feel and, therefore, how much we're willing to spend, suggests a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The findings clarify the big drivers of what economists call "the wealth effect," the idea that people spend more when they have more. This sounds pretty obvious, but the real barometer of wealth hasn't been as clear. In the past, as the Federal Reserve moved to buy up billions of dollars...

As President Obama faces pressure on the left to defend federal entitlement programs from the benefit cuts that the Republicans say are necessary to keep the programs solvent decades down the road, one part of Social Security could fall short of paying out full benefits within a few years -- even while Obama is still president. Over the long term, Social Security and Medicare have promised tens of trillions of dollars more in benefits than the nation can pay for under current policies. But Social Security's disability trust fund is in even worse shape, and current estimates say by 2016...

Comprehensive immigration reform could make millions of people suddenly eligible for assistance under President Obama's healthcare law, assuming a final deal paves the way for undocumented immigrants to receive papers. Illegal aliens are now prohibited from purchasing coverage through the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, which will launch next year. They are also ineligible for Medicaid under most circumstances, making the law's expansion of the program fruitless for people without documents. Even young illegal immigrants with "deferred action" status, known as "DREAMers," cannot access the law's benefits. But the picture could change completely if Hispanic lawmakers get their wish —...

Couldn't they have found someone who wasn't a key figure in one of the most notorious scandals to hit the SEC in the past two decades? And couldn't they have found someone who isn't a perfect symbol of the revolving-door culture under which regulators go soft on suspected Wall Street criminals, knowing they have million-dollar jobs waiting for them at hotshot defense firms as long as they play nice with the banks while still in office? I'll leave it to others to chronicle the other highlights and lowlights of Mary Jo White's career, and focus only on the one incident...

WASHINGTON: Despite India's efforts to extradite Pakistani American David Headley over the Mumbai terror attack, the US has virtually ruled out the possibility saying that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative "will serve in the United States". Asked to comment on a report that India wanted to keep up the effort to extradite Headley, state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland Friday noted: "He's been tried, convicted, and will serve in the United States." Even as India expressed disappointment at the 35 year sentence given by a Chicago court to David Headley, the US called it a very positive example of US-Indian collaboration in...

This is a brutal example of how far the struggle between muslims and catholics in Nigeria has reached. Muslims are determined to impose their 'religion' all over Africa as well as in other continents and countries of the world. Islam has but one goal: rule the world at any cost." "And where are the International Human Rights Organizations? Christians are burnt alive in Nigeria: a horrific Holocaust right in front of International indifference. As denounced by Father Juan Carlos Martos, on behalf of the Missionari Clarettiani, via del Sacro Cuore di Maria, Rome, Italy." "By publishing this graphic document on...

The Common Core Standards are an educational reform movement initiated by the National Governors Assocation and intended to standardize the educational curricula of the states around a "coomon core" of knowledge required to function in modern society. Put that way, the initiative sounds fine, but as if often the case with educaitonal reforms, Common Core proponents have relied on bafflement and obfuscation to shut down inquiry by the paying public into the very political process of putting the initiative into action -- a process monetarily supported by private education corporations. Common Core tests (those used in Oklahoma were developed by...

China's First Heavy Transporter Y-20 Takes Off The prototype of China's first indigenously-developed heavy transport aircraft, Y-20, takes off from an unidentified airport for its first test flight Saturday afternoon, January 26, 2013. [Photo: Xinhua] China began test flights Saturday for the prototype of its first indigenously-developed heavy transport aircraft, Y-20, a craft similar in size to the Russian IL-76 and somewhat smaller than the U.S. C-17. The plane took off at around 2:00pm from an airport in Yanliang, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, according to CCTV News. The Y-20 program is part of an effort to develop an indigenous long-range...

Dear XXXXXXXXXX, The Founding Fathers made it very clear: the ability to bear arms is a fundamental right of citizenship in these United States. The America they created is a place where “We the People” are guaranteed the right to defend ourselves, our families and our property. We must not allow emotions to alter or abridge our fundamental constitutional rights. As your Attorney General, I have a sworn duty to uphold the Constitutions of South Carolina and the United States – including the Second Amendment. I am fully committed to doing just that. Like many South Carolinians, I am a...

White House Condemns Court Ruling On 'Unconstitutional' Obama Appointments Spokesman says ruling heralded by Republicans' lawyers as 'stinging rebuke' to president is 'novel and unprecedented' 25 January 2013 The Obama administration is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court over its right to make direct appointments when Congress is in recess. Barack Obama breached the constitution when he bypassed Congress to make appointments to a labour relations panel, a federal appeal court ruled on Friday in a decision that was condemned by the White House as "novel and unprecedented". The judgement, from a three-judge panel of the US court of...

Hillary Clinton is likely suffering from double vision because she damaged her 6th cranial nerve in a fall a month ago, experts said. "The double vision could occur solely from her hitting her head - even a minor head trauma can do damage to the 6th cranial nerve," said Dr. Mark Kupersmith, Director of Neuro-Ophthalmology at St. Lukes-Roosevelt. Damage to the nerve also could have been the result of a blood clot she suffered later, he said.

Spouses Club Relents, Says Lesbian Army Wife Can Be 'Full Member' Ashley Broadway, left, is pictured with her wife, Lt. Col. Heather Mack and their 2-year-old son. By Bill Briggs Hours after same-sex Army wife Ashley Broadway was named Fort Bragg's 2013 “spouse of the year,” the on-base spouses club — that has for two months rebuffed Broadway's bid to join — fully reversed course and invited her "to become a full member," according to emails sent to NBC News and Broadway. The decision comes one week after the Association of Bragg Officers' Spouses (ABOS) extended Broadway — who is...

In an effort to cut defense spending, the Obama Administration plans to cut health benefits for active duty and retired military personnel and their families while not touching the benefits enjoyed by unionized civilian defense workers. The move, congressional aides suggested, is to force those individuals into Obamacare, Bill Gertz reported at the Washington Beacon. Gertz added: The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and...

Police hunt for women after brawl at social services is caught on tape Police are on the hunt for four women who were caught on video in a massive brawl that broke out on line at a social services offices earlier this week in East St. Louis, Illinois. According to witnesses, the fight started over a disagreement between several women in line. In the video, you can see four women pushing, shoving and fists flying before security managed to separate the women. The women left before police arrived. But East St. Louis Police Chief Michael Floore says that doesn't mean...

The Resistance Begins: New York Gun Owners Refuse to Register; “Largest Act of Civil Disobedience in State History” Mac Slavo January 25th, 2013 With emotions running high in the aftermath of the Newtown Sandy Hook shooting, politicians on the State and Federal level have begun introducing legislative actions to curtail access to firearms protected by the Second Amendment. In Missouri, parents may soon be forced to register firearms with their child’s school under threat of criminal penalties. In Massachusetts, another proposal would require storage of semi-automatic rifles at government approved storage depots. And, in the State of New York, congressional...

(CBS News) Republican Party leaders are searching for the way forward in the wake of an election they believed should have gone their way. Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent and host of "Face the Nation," said on "CBS This Morning" that Republicans are still reeling from the defeat. He explained, "You started out with very high unemployment, you had an economy that was not in great shape. You had all of those signs, polls showing most people thought the country was headed in the wrong direction, and yet the Republicans lost, and I think they're just trying to figure out...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois fell to the bottom of all 50 states in the rankings of a major credit ratings agency Friday following the failure of Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to fix the state’s hemorrhaging pension system during this month’s lame-duck session. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded Illinois in what is the latest fallout over the $96.8 billion debt to five state pension systems. The New York rating firm’s ranking signaled taxpayers may pay tens of millions of dollars more in interest when the state borrows money for roads and other projects. “It’s absolutely bad news for taxpayers,” said...

Farmer Mark Schroeder of Elgin, Minn., knew something was seriously wrong when he heard a noise from his new windmill that sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof of his house. "You could hear the noise 2 or 3 miles away," he said. The windmill shook furiously atop its 160-foot tower. Black smoke billowed from the control unit. Schroeder said he tried shutting off the power, but the windmill's three 25-foot-long blades continued spinning furiously. One of the 500-pound blades eventually sheared off and flew about 100 yards into a field, bringing Schroeder's dream of energy independence crashing to...

01/23/13 From HuffPo: Dead weight? A business owner in Utah has become the latest employer to blame President Obama's health care reform bill for layoffs and has doubled down on his public disdain for the current administration by admitting he singled out Obama supporters. Terry Lee, owner of Cedar City-based Terry Lee Forensics, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he was so impressed by a Vernal, Utah, smoothie bar's policy of asking liberal patrons to pay more, that he, too, took action to recoup losses he said were incurred by Obamacare. George Burnett, owner of I Love Drilling Smoothie &...

During a city council meeting in Oak Harbor, WA a veteran who served in, Afghanistan speaks spontaneously in favor of the 2nd Amendment and causes a liberal whiner on the council to get up and leave when he is not allowed to violate his oath of office.

On Friday, the New York Times Television section highlighted tonight's Sean Hannity one-hour special “Boomtown,” a program featuring Government Accountability Institute President and Co-founder Peter Schweizer and Breitbart News Executive Chairman and Government Accountability Co-founder Stephen K. Bannon. 9 P.M. (Fox News) BOOMTOWN: WASHINGTON, THE IMPERIAL CITY In this edition of “Hannity,” the host, Sean Hannity; Peter Schweizer, the president and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute; and Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute, investigate what they call crony capitalism among the city’s power elite and the tactics used by...